Portrayal of Corruption as Narrative Technique in The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born

Abstract

Narration according to Getrude Stein is what anybody has to say in any wayabout anything that can happen, that has happened or will happen in any way [iv]. Narration can be nuncupative when it is printed and read as fiction. It is the point at which the writer articulates all the modes or techniques ofnarrating within his confine to produce a fine story. Jeremy Hawthorn seesnarrative technique as a technique that is used when one is told of “what ishappening rather than witnessing the happening directly as we can with aplay or film” [57]. Writing on its own has an implicit notion of findingtechniques of expression that will make the work accessible. The BeautyfulOnes Are Not Yet Born is a novel in which Armah expresses his disgust on the level of corruption prevalent in Ghana during its first republic underNkrumah. Corruption was so rampant and deep that every nook and cranny of Ghana showed it. This paper, through a systematic and close reading of the, examines the narrative modes or techniques through which the novelistdepicts the level of corruption prevalent in Ghana as at the time of the novel. Armah uses the progressive tense form of the verb, ellipsis, analepsis and prolepsis, characterization, homodiegetic narrator, and narrative situation to tell his story in the novel. The language he uses mesh with the theme of the novel.